General Gaming Article

GeForce GTX 770 Reviews: Asus DirectCU II OC vs Gigabyte WindForce 3X OC
MSI GT60 (2013) Review
September 2013: Dream Machine
August 2013: Expert's Guide to PC Hardware
Google Niantic's Reality MMO "Ingress" Leaves Beta, Now Open to Everyone
Mad Catz Treats Flight Sim Fans to Saitek X-55 Rhino H.O.T.A.S. Throttle and Stick
Netgear's Lawsuit Alleging Asus of False Advertising Can Proceed, Judge Says
Lian Li's PC-V358 Micro ATX Case Sports a Hinged Design
Google, HP Recall 145,000 Chromebook 11 Chargers Following Reports of Overheating
Newegg Daily Deals: MSI Gaming N780 TF 3DG5/OC, Antec Nine Hundred Black Case, and More!

GeForce GTX 770 Reviews: Asus DirectCU II OC vs Gigabyte WindForce 3X OC

Posted: 17 Dec 2013 03:10 PM PST

An overclocked and super-cooled silicon smackdown

Last month Nvidia launched the GeForce GTX 770, and showed us the "stock" board with a cooler originally featured in the GTX Titan. At the time, Nvidia said its add-in board partners would be offering versions that were overclocked and custom-cooled, but we didn't know that was all that would be available. As it turns out, spotting a GTX 770 with the Titan cooler is about as rare as seeing Gordon Mah Ung at an Apple store, so kiss your Titan-cooled GTX 770 dreams goodbye for now. The good news is that you're now forced to choose from a flurry of premium-looking cards including these two sweet overclocked and super-chilledboards from Asus and Gigabyte. Both boards feature loads of custom hardware, specialized fans, overclocking software, and totally silent operation. Sounds like the perfect ingredients for a matchup to us!

Asus GeForce GTX 770 DirectCU II OC

The Asus GTX 770 DirectCU II OC deviates wildly from Nvidia's reference design, replacing it wholesale and saving only the GK104 silicon. Not only is the cooling apparatus entirely new (at least compared to Nvidia's reference cooler), but Asus also uses its own custom PCB with specialized components, including Super Alloy Power(SAP)caps and chokes for more efficient operation and increased longevity, custom VRMs with their own heatsink, and power diagnostic LEDs. It even then threw in a backplate for better cooling and increased rigidity,too. Despite the cooling assembly's size, you can actually remove the whole thing with just four screws (compared to the stock cooler's 22 screws), allowing for easy spring cleaning. The best part is that all this technology will only cost you a whopping $10 more than the stock card, making it somewhat of a bargain. Also, this is a 2GB card and Asus has informed us it has no plans to bring a 4GB version to market.

Asus has delivered a 100 percent non-reference design with custom PCB and cooling.

Of course, for a $10 premium you shouldn't expect sky-high overclocks, and Asus keeps it real with a mild 12MHz overclock, though that can be pushed much higher (see below). Overclocking benefits aside, the main value of the Asus card is that it's built with top-of-the-line parts and runs cool and quiet. The card is able to achieve this superior cooling performance despite taking up the same dual PCIe slots (the GTX 680 DCII had a three-slot cooler for the same GPU, mind you). Helping you maximize the card's performance is Asus's GPU Tweak utility, which lets you adjust clock speeds, voltages, fan performance, and more. We like GPU Tweak but wish it displayed real-time clock speeds in a more easy-to-read fashion.

In testing, we saw the Asus card eke out a small performance advantage over the stock card, and we ran all tests with the card overclocked, as well. The highest we could get this little puppy was 1,241MHz, and we had to up the voltage to its maximum setting of 1.2V. We thought we'd be able to nudge it up to 1,280MHz or so but every time we did that it was not stable. However, the most glaring difference is that this card runs very quiet regardless of what's thrown at it. Under load for hours, it held its own with a maximum temperature of 72C compared to the stock cooler's average maximum of about 80C. The GPU Tweak software lets you set maximum temp (remember this is a GPU Boost 2.0 card), increase voltage, adjust clocks, and monitor all these settings, too. It's great software, but we prefer EVGA's PrecisionX with its real-time clock-speed display. It's just easier to read at a glance.

All in all, there's very little to complain about here. Yes, it has the exact same performance as Gigabyte'scard, both in terms of FPS and silent operation, yet the Asus card costs $10 more. However, the Asus card has better software, isn't quite as long, and its cooler is easy to remove, all of which is easily worth the price bump.

Asus GeForce GTX 770 DirectCU II OC

Totally custom design; super quiet; overclockable.

Software is just so-so; paltry bundle.

$410, www.asus.com

Gigabyte GeForce GTX 770 WindForce 3X OC

Like Asus, Gigabyte has pulled out all the stops for its highly clocked GTX 770 and delivered a board that looks nothing like the stock card at all due to its custom PCB and exotic triple-fan cooler it calls WindForce 3X. This big-ass cooler uses three 8cm fans on top of a heatsink roughly the size of Central America, and Gigabyte says it can dissipate up to 450W, making it one of the largest coolers we've seen on a GPU since the triple-fan PowerColor Devil 13 HD 7990 graced the Lab in 2012. That card, if you recall, was so large it came with its own support stand, and though this card isn't in the same ballpark, it's in the same league for sure, but since it takes up just two slots instead of three it seems a lot more manageable. It's also 11 inches long, which is .5 inches longer than stock. Its bundle includes two 6-pin Molex-to-PCIe adapters and a driver CD.

Three slow-spinning fans equal silent operation and excellent temps at all times.

Its cooler is the same one found on the GTX 780, so it's more than up for the task of cooling this card despite its higher clock speeds (compared to the GTX 780's). Gigabyte calls the cooling setup "Triangle Cooling," as there is a triangle-shaped copper heat spreader on top of the GPU with a heatsink on top of that. The fan is then placed on top of the triangle, forcing the air hitting the card to divert onto each side of the triangle. There's a secondary heatsink too, cooling the board's circuitry, but it lacks the triangle apparatus. Again, like Asus's card, this is a non-reference design with high-end components and has Gigabyte's Ultra Durable branding, including the signature two ounces of copper within the PCB to help absorb heat and better control temps. The card is clocked at 1,137MHz base with an 1,189MHz boost clock, and in our testing we were also able to get it up to 1,241MHz, just like the Asus. Wealso had to nudge the voltage slightly to achieve this, but suffice to say we had the same overclocking success with this board as we did with the Asus card. Given that the cards had similar clock speeds once overclocked, we were not surprised to find them run almost exactly the same in testing. The Wind-Force 3X had a tiny one-or-two frameadvantage in some games, but it's close enough to call it a tie. This brings us to the card's operation, and yes, it was also extremely quiet at all times. Was it quieter than the Asus board? It's hard to say, as they were both what we'd call "silent," even under full load. In temps, the WindForce held steady at 74 C, even when we told the card to run as hot as it likes, and it would not budge over that line. That's seven degrees warmer than the Asus board though, so we're taking away one point for that small transgression.

Our other gripe is with the OC Guru II software, which is not as easy to use as the GPU Tweak program provided by Asus, and takes up way too much space on the desktop. That's about it though; out of the box this card is fast, quiet, and the same price as MSRP, representing an incredible value.

Gigabyte GeForce GTX 770 WindForce 3X OC

Super quiet; very overclockable; solidly built; great price.

Weak Bundle; looks kind of cheap; software needs revamping.

$400, www.gigabyte.us

Benchmarks

	Asus GeForce GTX 770 DirectCU II OC	Gigabyte GTX770 WindForce	GTX 770 (Reference)	Asus GTX 680	GTX 670 (Reference)	XFX Radeon HD 7950
3DMark Fire Strike	6,988	7,290	6,932	6,456	5,912	6,099
Catzilla (Tiger) Beta	5,992	5,978	5,604	5,255	4,907	4,024
Unigine Heaven 4.0 (fps)	25	26	24	23	21	20
Crysis 3 (fps)	25	21	17	17	16	17
Shogun 2 (fps)	41	43	39	38	33	34
Far Cry 3 (fps)	32	33	30	30	28	27
Metro: Last Light (fps)	19	19	17	16	16	12
Tomb Raider (fps)	20	21	20	18	16	18
Battlefield 3 (fps)	40	40	38	34	35	35
Core/Memory Clock (MHz)	1,058/7,000	1,137/7,000	1,046/6,000	1,006/6,000	915/6,000	860/5,000
TDP	230W	230W	230W	250W	170W	200W

Best scores are bolded. Our test bed is a 3.33GHz Core i7-975 Extreme Edition in an Asus P6X58D Premium motherboard with 6GB of DDR3/1333 and an 850TX Corsair PSU. The OS is 64-bit Windows 7 Ultimate. All games are run at 1920x1200 with 4x AA unless otherwise noted.

MSI GT60 (2013) Review

Posted: 17 Dec 2013 02:06 PM PST

Prodigal son returns... with Haswell and a 780M!

If the MSI GT60 looks familiar, that might be because it's identical to our zero-point gaming notebook, which we first reviewed in our December 2012 issue. While the laptop uses the same chassis, the refreshed unit comes with shiny new parts that include Intel's Haswell CPU and a new top-tier 700-series GPU from Nvidia.

The exterior might look familiar, but she's got shiny new parts where it counts.

In terms of design, the refreshed GT60 features the same brushed-aluminum 15.5x10.5x2-inch chassis as its predecessor. It also comes with the same competent 1920x1080-resolution TN monitor, quality-sounding Dynaudio speakers, capable multitouch trackpad, and multi-colored, backlit SteelSeries keyboard. Aesthetically, it's a little garish, but it's far from the ugliest notebook we've seen. The bigger problem is that it weighs nine pounds, 13.2 ounces, which is quite heavy for a 15.6-inch notebook.

Under the hood, MSI has made vast upgrades to the GT60. Our configuration came with a brand-new Haswell Core i7-4700MQ CPU and GeForce GTX 780M GPU, both of which we hadn't had the pleasure of testing before. One of our biggest gripes with the previous GT60 was that it didn't come with a solid-state drive. That issue has been resolved, as our refreshed unit came with a 128GB mSATA SSD that allowed the laptop to quickly boot to Windows in less than 14 seconds. Mechanical storage is handled by a 1TB HDD. If that isn't enough space for you, the GT60 supports up to two additional mSATA SSDs, although opening the bottom of the laptop to access these bays voids the warranty. Another upgrade found in this new GT60 is a bump up to 16GB of RAM, from its predecessor's 12GB. It also has two additional RAM slots, if you'd like to add more. Unfortunately, adding RAM requires cracking open the case and thus technically voiding the warranty, too.

Watching all these components chew through our benchmarks was a joy to behold. Not surprisingly, the CPU gains weren't huge, with the GT60's new Haswell processor beating its older Ivy Bridge counterpart by roughly 11–14 percent. Its biggest lead came in the multithread-loving x264 encoding benchmark. While these performance gains might not dazzle the skeptic, Intel has made some great strides with Haswell's energy efficiency. Looping a ripped Blu-ray movie, the notebook was able to last roughly four hours and 20 minutes, which is about a 40 percent improvement over our zero-point's already competent battery life. The biggest star here, however, is the new GeForce GTX 780M video card. While it still uses Nvidia's Kepler architecture, which we first saw with the green team's 600-series GPUs, it's essentially loaded with a lot more firepower this time around. It's got more than 1,000 more CUDA cores, its memory clock is 1,000MHz faster, and it has a 256-bit memory-interface width compared to the 670M's 192. This all amounts to at least double the performance in our graphics benchmarks.

In our experiential gameplay tests, the GT60 ran Borderlands 2 maxed out at 1080p at around 100fps, proving that this rig should be able to cut through mainstream PC games like a hot knife through butter. Firing up Far Cry 3 for a beefier challenge, the GT60 wasn't able to max the game on the highest Ultra settings, but it did manage silky smooth frame rates in the 50s on Very High with AA turned off, which is very impressive for a laptop.

In terms of performance, the refreshed GT60 is better than its predecessor in every way. We like the laptop a lot, but it still has some issues that prevent it from being completely Kick Ass. While it's not the most expensive notebook we've ever reviewed, it's certainly not cheap at $2,100. We also wish it were sleeker and dropped a few pounds so we could lug it around more easily. Still, if you're seeking great performance from a desktop replacement, this is one fine machine.

$2,100, www.msi.com

September 2013: Dream Machine

Posted: 17 Dec 2013 01:53 PM PST

In the PDF archive of the September 2013 issue you can find

Dream Machine 2013
Thumb Drive Toolkit
Get your start back
Asus Geforce GTX 770 review
NZXT Kraken X60 review
And more!

August 2013: Expert's Guide to PC Hardware

Posted: 17 Dec 2013 01:52 PM PST

In the PDF archive of the August 2013 issue you can find:

Hardware Expert Guide
Here Comes Haswell
Kepler 2.0 Arrives
Create a VPN Server
Restore Your Files with DocShield
And more!

Google Niantic's Reality MMO "Ingress" Leaves Beta, Now Open to Everyone

Posted: 17 Dec 2013 01:17 PM PST

Augmented reality meets MMO

After more than a year in closed beta and amassing over 1 million downloads, Google's Niantic Labs just launched Ingress to the public. What is Ingress, you ask? It's a journey into alternate reality gaming, is one answer. Another answer is that it's a blending of augmented reality with MMO gaming for people with Android devices (iOS support will come later). It gets gamers outdoors in a sort of geo-caching expedition with real-life capture point control.

At present, users can join one of two factions: Enlightened or Resistance. Scattered throughout the game are different color "Portals" to an alternate universe that you can see, discover, and capture with your mobile phone. Agents of the Enlightened want to know more about these Portals and embrace their power, while agents of the Resistance fear they're influencing the way we think (mind hacking) and want to defend and protect what's left of humanity.

This is really just the tip of the iceberg. The game's back story is rather deep and involved, but short and to the point, the world around you is the game. It's a neat way to discover new places and landmarks, and best of all, it's free. If you want to give it a try, you can download Ingress from Google Play.

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Mad Catz Treats Flight Sim Fans to Saitek X-55 Rhino H.O.T.A.S. Throttle and Stick

Posted: 17 Dec 2013 12:07 PM PST

A new peripheral for flight sim gamers

It's hard to tell if flight sims will ever be as popular as they were back in the 1990s, but rest assured, if you're a fan of the genre, not all PC peripheral makers have forgotten about you. That's especially true of Mad Catz, which today announced that the Saitek X-55 Rhino H.O.T.A.S. (Hands On Throttle and Stick) will ship to consumers in early 2014 at an affordable price point.

Mad Catz says the X-55 Rhino Hotas was designed to give flight sim enthusiasts the most realistic flight experience possible without breaking the bank. It's styled after modern fight jet control systems and built from the ground up to give gamers a wealth of customizable options.

"Whether flying a modern fighter, single- or multi-engine aircraft, or even a retro single-seat plane, the X-55 Rhino supplies all the control surface options required to achieve the exact level of aerial performance aspiring pilots demand," Mad Catz says. "The X-55 Rhino features enhanced 16-bit hall-effect sensors in the axes, four swappable springs for the joystick so you can dial in your preferred stick tension, and twin lockable throttles with a friction adjustment knob that can be set on the fly."

It connects via USB and is supported by Windows XP and higher. It looks pretty slick, and in addition to traditional flight sims, we could see this being a hit with the Oculus Rift.

Other than saying it's supposed to be "affordable," Mad Catz didn't offer up any pricing specifics. You can, however, sign up to receive a notification when pre-orders will be accepted. Mad Catz says there will be a "very limited quantity available at launch."

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Netgear's Lawsuit Alleging Asus of False Advertising Can Proceed, Judge Says

Posted: 17 Dec 2013 11:37 AM PST

Netgear accuses Asus of Wi-Fi chicanery

U.S. District Judge Susan Illston denied Asus' request to dismiss a lawsuit brought on by Netgear accusing the company of reporting misleading information related to the signal strength of its wireless routers, which if true would be in violation of Federal Communications Commission (FCC) regulations. Asus' motion to dismiss was scheduled for a hearing, but Judge Illston denied the motion last Thursday.

"Netgear can prove its claims by showing that defendants falsely advertised that their products met FCC standards, either by submitting falsified test results or by altering their wireless routers after testing," Judge Illston wrote, according to 360Law.com. "Proving these allegations does not risk undercutting the agency's expert judgments and authority because plaintiff's allegations do not implicate the FCC's determinations or require the court to interpret ambiguous FCC regulations."

Netgear sued Asus back in July claiming that the output strength and other measurements that Asus supplied to the FCC in its filings were either falsified or otherwise fraudulent. Two routers are named in the suit -- the RT-N65U and RT-AC66U. Netgear believes Asus conspired with QuieTek Corporation, an independent testing laboratory, to submit false test results to the FCC as part of a plan to eliminate competition in the router space.

As a result of allegedly having a signal strength higher than the FCC allows, Netgear says it was harmed by false representations that that led some to proclaim Asus' routers to be "more powerful than Netgear's competing products, and thus providing a broader reaching range and more stable wireless connection under certain circumstances," according to court documents.

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Lian Li's PC-V358 Micro ATX Case Sports a Hinged Design

Posted: 17 Dec 2013 09:40 AM PST

Flips open for easy access

Building a full-fledged PC inside the tight confines of a micro-ATX chassis can be challenging in and of itself due to the lack of elbow room, and once finished, you may never want to poke your head inside again. Should the need arise to upgrade or replace a component, however, Lian Li's PC-V358 mini tower chassis will at least make it easy to get back inside thanks to a hinged design that allows the top and side panels to swing open to the side.

Once in there, you'll find two separate compartments. The top section holds the micro-ATX or mini-ITX motherboard (the case supports both), graphics card up to 330mm (12.9 inches) in length, and up to two 2.5-inch drives. Up to six 3.5-inch drives and a power supply reside in the bottom compartment.

There's room inside for a 240mm radiator and/or all-in-one liquid cooling kit, which would get installed on the hinged bracket. Air cooling duties are handled by two front 120mm fans with dust filters and a rear 120mm fan to expel hot air.

Lian Li says the PC-V358 will be available at the end of December at Newegg for $179 MSRP.

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Google, HP Recall 145,000 Chromebook 11 Chargers Following Reports of Overheating

Posted: 17 Dec 2013 08:08 AM PST

Chromebook 11 chargers pose a fire hazard

If you recently scored an HP Chromebook 11, be aware that there's been a recall on the bundled charger with those devices. According to information obtained from the United States Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC), Google and HP issued the recall after fielding complaints of chargers overheating and melting during use. Google has received nine reports to date, including one report of a small burn to a consumer and a report of a burnt pillow.

The recall affects around 145,000 chargers that were sold with the HP Chromebook 11. They measure 1.75 inches by 0.75 inches, have 6-foot long cords, and a micro-USB connector at the end. The model number of affected units is MU15-N1052-A00S.

"Consumers should stop using this product unless otherwise instructed," the recall notice reads. It also warns against attempting to resell the recalled charger, which is illegal. Instead, users with an affected charger should contact Google for a free replacement.

Chromebook 11 Charger

You can get in touch with Google by calling 866-628-1371 between 5AM and 7PM PT, or by going to http://chromebook.com and navigating to the Support section.

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Newegg Daily Deals: MSI Gaming N780 TF 3DG5/OC, Antec Nine Hundred Black Case, and More!

Posted: 17 Dec 2013 06:23 AM PST

MSI 780 newegg logo

Top Deal:

Scores of eager Litecoin miners are gobbling up all the available AMD Radeon R9 Series graphics cards in hopes of generating a mountain of virtual currency, but don't worry, if it's a high-end graphics card for actual gaming you're after, there are plenty out there. One is the topic of today's top deal -- an MSI Gaming N780 TF 3GD5/OC GeForce GTX 780 for $490 with free shipping (normally $520; additional $20 mail-in-rebate). Using the included app, you can switch between three modes: OC, Gaming, and Silent.

Other Deals:

Western Digital WD Green WD30EZRX 3TB IntelliPower 64MB Cache SATA 6.0Gb/s 3.5-inch Internal Hard Drive Bare Drive - OEM for $110 with free shipping (normally $130; use coupon code: [EMCWVWV32])

G.Skill Sniper Gaming Series 16GB (2 x 8GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1600 (PC3 12800) Desktop Memory Model F3-1600C9D-16GSR for $128 with free shipping (normally $150; use coupon code: [EMCWVWV35])

Gigabyte GA-G1.Sniper A88X FM2+ / FM2 AMD A88X (Bolton D4) HDMI SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 ATX AMD Motherboard for $100 with free shipping (normally $115 )

Antec Nine Hundred Black Steel ATX Mid Tower Computer Case with Upgraded USB 3.0 for $90 with free shipping (normally $130; use coupon code: [EMCWVWV37]; additional $25 Mail-in rebate)

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